Ethnic groups experience higher rates of disease, fewer treatment options, and reduced access to health care.
Despite consistent increases in healthcare spending, ethnic groups experience higher rates of disease, fewer treatment options, and reduced access to health care. Racial and ethnic minorities have higher rates of dibilitating diseases such as obesity, cancer, diabetes, and AIDS.
For instance, in the African American community, 48% of all adults suffer from chronic diseases compared to 39% for the general population. Fifteen percent of African Americans, 14% of Hispanics, & 18% of American Indians suffer from Type II diabetes, compared to 8% of whites. Seven out of 10 African Americans ages 18 - 64 are obese or overweight and are 15% more likely to become obese than whites. African Americans are more likely to develop cancer and die than any other racial group. African American males are 50% more likely to develop prostate cancer than white males. And Hispanic and Vietnamese women contract cervical cancer at twice the rate of white women. Perhaps the most alarming disparity is with HIV/AIDS. African Americans experience new HIV infections at 7 times the rate of whites, and Hispanics at 2 1/2 times the rate of whites. More than 1 in 3 Hispanics and almost 1 in 5 African Americans are uninsured. This situation must change!
The Affordable Care Act will create help create better access to quality, affordable health care for minorities in several ways.
- Health insurance exchanges will enable you to shop and compare plans from many carriers and get premium assistance to purchase the options right for you.
- Eliminate discrimination based upon preexisting medical conditions.
- Provide for more routine care by funding for safety net hospitals and community health care centers.
- Control chronic diseases with a number of new programs designed to provide medical homes and chronic disease management pilots in Medicare.
- Fight health disparities by requiring any health care program to report on race, ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic status in order to better understand health care inequities and devote funding addressing these issues.